Guest view: Those 2020 ambitions getting more apparent

This editorial was first published in the (Middletown) Times Herald-Record, a fellow GateHouse Media publication. Guest editorials don't necessarily reflect the Daily Messenger's opinions.

Consider what Andrew Cuomo did in just the past week.

He reaffirmed that “health care is a human right” and issued orders that will protect New Yorkers from whatever becomes of the House bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act that is now being considered in the U.S. Senate.

As soon as President Trump announced that the United States would be withdrawing from the Paris Agreement to combat climate change, he joined with Govs. Jerry Brown of California and Jay Inslee of Washington to form the United States Climate Alliance, states which will work on their own to uphold the provisions. Since then, 10 other governors have signed up and six more have expressed interest.

He appeared with Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker, to announce a push to defeat six Republican House members, including John Faso, in the next elections in 2018 to help give Democrats a majority.

And he finally stepped into a lingering Albany stalemate saying that it would be optimal for Democrats to control the Senate, as they do the Assembly, now that a win in a special election on Long Island gives nominal Democrats a slim majority if they would all caucus and vote together.

If there were any doubt about his ambitions, these should put them to rest. He is on a mission to solidify the Democratic brand in the state and win re-election as governor in 2018 with a margin so wide that it will propel him to the top of the list to take on Donald Trump in 2020.

And he is doing this from a position of formidable strength. The most recent Siena College poll showed that his popularity in New York was up dramatically, the highest since 2014. And the numbers show that support is both wide and deep.

He is popular among men and women, in the city, suburbs and upstate, among young, middle-aged and old, in households with low, moderate and high incomes. The only category where Cuomo’s unfavorable ratings beat his favorable ones is with Republicans. But you have to take that in context because Republicans in New York really don’t like anybody, being the only category giving a thumbs down to both the Senate and Assembly as well as the governor.

Add to all these moves his flawed Excelsior scholarship plan to make college more affordable and his longtime support for gay rights and women’s rights, and you can make the case that Cuomo is trying to follow in some impressive footsteps. Franklin Roosevelt implemented the New Deal in Washington as president only after trying out many of the features as governor in Albany.

Those who like the governor and those who do not can agree that he operates under a cloud, the one that started when he summarily disbanded the corruption-fighting Moreland Commission after it got too close to home, and that continues with investigations and prosecutions of some of his colleagues.

If Cuomo survives, he will have to be sure to thank Donald Trump who fired Preet Bharara as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, diluting a threat to both.